Dowson tells Saints to 'never forget' their 'very painful' defeat at Leicester
Phil Dowson has told Saints to make sure they never forget what happened at Mattioli Woods Welford Road on Saturday afternoon.
But the Saints boss also called for some perspective after his side suffered just their second league defeat of the season.
The black, green and gold were beaten 41-17 by local rivals Leicester Tigers, who dominated in pretty much every department on Saturday afternoon.
It meant Saints, who started the weekend sitting top, saw their gap over Tigers in the league standings cut to just five points with three regular-season games to go.
And Dowson said: "It was very painful.
"We battled very hard, we had to work incredibly hard and after half-time we couldn't make the adjustments and we couldn't get into the game and exert any pressure of our own that would have allowed us to get on the scoreboard and claw our way back in.
"Fundamentally, we didn't get it right, we didn't get enough ball, we conceded a lot of penalties and we've got to wear that and make sure we're better.
"Leicester were at it, they're a very good side, like we knew they would be."
Saints must now move on quickly as they host Bristol Bears in another big Gallagher PREM game on Friday night.
And Dowson said: "I hope we take the scars, I hope we take the lessons out of it, I hope we stay together, I hope we work incredibly hard on Monday in preparation for Friday night's game at the Gardens.
"And I hope we make sure that we never forget it."
Saints' only other league loss this season was a 46-12 defeat at Bristol back in November.
"We've got to be careful of over-egging it because it's the second game we've lost this season in the PREM," Dowson said.
"It (Leicester) is a tough place to come, they're unbeaten for a long period of time and we weren't at it so I don't think we need to stress about it.
"We've got to make sure we don't take it lightly, but we've also got to make sure we don't throw the baby out with the bath water."
Saints lost Tom Lockett before kick-off as he had to withdraw from the starting line-up.
"It certainly had an impact but we train for these scenarios so we have to be better than we were today, regardless of who drops out before kick-off," Dowson said.